Peroxidic explosives such as TATP or HMTD are among the “self elaborates” which can easily be produced in large quantities from household chemicals. The high brisance and thus poor handability of even small amounts of this material is a safety challenge for providing samples of the genuine material. When dissolved in lipophilic ionic liquids, peroxidic explosives such as TATP can be handled safely.
The high brisance of peroxidic explosives makes the analysis of substances discovered extremely dangerous since material must be taken mechanically for doubt-free identification of these pulverulent solids. Dried peroxidic explosives such as TATP and especially HMTD can be detonated in such a procedure. Such discovered substances are usually covered with diesel fuel and, after a certain time, the explosive can be safely collected mechanically. Owing to the complexity of the diesel mixture consisting of several thousand volatile components, later analyses are no longer possible and a forensic valuation is thus impossible.
Stabilization of explosives to achieve a better processability (especially nitro compounds) are described in US 20080251169 A1. Furthermore, S. Baj et al., Green Chemistry 8:292-295 (2006) describe the use of ionic liquids in the synthesis of dialkyl peroxides and WO 2010/146170 describes the use of neutral ionic liquids for stabilizing peroxidic explosives such as TATP or TATP hydrate, for producing stable solutions of peroxidic explosives, and for making these explosives insensitive. Ionic liquids are innovative solvents having a negligible vapor pressure (Ionic Liquids in Synthesis, Eds: P. Wasserscheidt, T. Welton, WILEY-VCH, Weinheim (2003)) which do not influence the olfactory impression of TATP and other peroxidic explosives.
For forensic analysis, samples of high-explosive peroxidic materials such as TATP or HMTD must in particular be safely taken up, stored and analyzed without the sample itself being influenced. For this purpose, diesel oil is presently used, as indicated above, but this not only has a strong odor and, because of the many constituents, interferes in the analysis, but also offers no safety in the handling of peroxidic explosive samples.